Unfortunately, energy costs only seem to be rising. It makes sense to look into any possibility that can lessen the blow of these monthly expenses in light of perennially rising prices.
Starting with home energy use makes sense since it makes up a substantial amount of the bill, with winter heating and summer cooling being the primary offenders sending those bills soaring.
When used frequently, electric heaters and air conditioning units are not particularly energy-efficient.
What other options are there, then?
One solution is to improve the ventilation in your home. In the long run, choosing an adequate home ventilation system can be a workable and affordable choice to improve the energy efficiency of your home.
But, that’s not all proper ventilation does.
What is the purpose of home ventilation systems?
Besides saving on your monthly energy bills, what is the purpose of a home ventilation system?
Well, after installation, house ventilation systems provide adequate ventilation that offers several advantages:
- Introducing and circulating fresh air continuously throughout your home. This fresh, filtered air improves indoor air quality and eliminates odors.
- Preventing mold problems and moisture buildup in your roof space, which can lead to structural issues in the building as well as health issues for you and your family.
- Using the fans or natural airflow to remove warm air, hot air, or cool air, depending on the season, helps to regulate the temperature of your home with the help of proper air ventilation.
- Reducing the likelihood of allergies by preventing airborne pollutants from entering the home.
In a nutshell, ventilation is primarily concerned with controlling moisture, contaminants, and temperature in your house. Without adequate ventilation, a house may suffer significant hidden problems that may require repairs and will likely decrease your home’s value.
How does a proper ventilation system work?
When hot air, moisture-laden with humidity, comes into contact with a cold surface, the air will condense. We all remember our science classes; condensation means water droplets, and water, where it shouldn’t be, is always bad news for your home.
Condensation will accumulate in your attic, in your roof space, and on your ceilings if you can’t circulate the humid air out of your house, resulting in significant damage.
Utilising intake vents and exhaust vents, which work in tandem, a ventilation system enables your home to breathe and exchange this hot, stale air for new, fresh, outside air. This combination of vents works to supply air that actively improves the air quality inside your home.
Natural air enters through intake vents placed at the low points of your roof. This outdoor air expands and rises as it becomes warmer. Then, the hot, moisture-filled air rises and escapes through the exhaust vents placed at the roof’s peak.
Another crucial element of a ventilation system is insulation, which keeps conditioned air inside a home’s living areas. Insulation is critical to creating airtight buildings that maintain a comfortable temperature, meaning that the vents can do their work in heating and cooling the house.
That’s why effective ventilation is the foundation of energy efficiency in the home.
Different types of home ventilation systems
There are various types of ventilation systems available in Australia. Whichever you choose will depend on your home type and your ventilation needs.
Let’s run through the main options.
Natural ventilation systems
In this unusual approach, particular architectural elements of the house allow fresh air in and eject stale air. One strategy is to build a solar chimney, where air is heated by the sun, becomes more buoyant, and rises upward and out of vents near the top of the building. This lowers the pressure inside the home, which allows fresh air to enter through specially placed inlet ports.
Balanced ventilation system
In a balanced ventilation system, fresh outdoor air is brought into a house at the same rate as stale indoor air is expelled. A well-designed and fitted balanced ventilation system won’t pressurise or depressurise the house.
Balanced ventilation systems can be passive, mechanical, or a combination of both. In passive systems, the incoming and outgoing airflows are balanced through the use of natural ventilation techniques such as opening windows, vents, and roof vents. In mechanical systems, fans or blowers are used to control the air exchange rate.
Instead of depending on natural ventilation to transport air and pollutants throughout the house, this enables mechanical ventilation systems to regulate airflow within the building, potentially through ducts to optimal areas within the house.
However, mechanical ventilation systems are often very expensive to install, and also expensive to maintainnand carry out repairs. They consume a lot of energy to operate, meaning they’re not a particularly green choice for homeowners either. Finally, they can also be quite noisy and cause an unwelcome distraction.
For these reasons, it’s better to opt for a balanced passive ventilation system that offers adequate ventilation without the disadvantages of a mechanical solution.
Balanced ventilation with heat recovery
This system consists of two fans placed next to one other, one of which draws in new air while the other exhausts stale air. Due to the proximity of the two, there is an air-to-air exchange that preconditions the new air entering the house, making use of something called a heat exchanger. For houses in colder climates, this is a good option.
A fantastic solution for your home: RapidRidge with ventilation
There are many different vent types that you can utilise in your home, including gable vents, soffit vents, eaves vents, ridge vents, and plenty of other variations.
You can read through a summary of their relative pros and cons to help inform your decision on which vents to choose in your roof ventilation system.
We offer a fantastic roofing solution for your home that creates a natural passive cooling system to offer balanced ventilation that works.
Our RapidRidge with ventilation system incorporates all the benefits of a dry fixed roof, with the added bonus of ventilation.
RapidRidge with Ventilation is a simple and cost-effective way to reduce moisture buildup and high temperatures in the roof space. This is important not only for the roof’s structure but also for the health of you and whoever else lives in the house.
Essentially, the system allows fresh air to enter through eaves vents. This allows air to continuously circulate, while hot air rises to escape from the open ridge vent at the top of the roof. Ridge caps then hold the whole thing in place securely.
Benefits of the RapidRidge ventilation system include:
- Save around 5% on energy costs throughout the year
- Installation is simple without the need for mortar
- No ongoing maintenance post-installation
- Effective ventilation prolongs the life of the roof
- There is no need for ugly fans like whirlybirds; improving the aesthetics of your home
How to choose the best ventilation system for you
RapidRidge with ventilation is a great choice for homeowners. However, what you ultimately choose will depend on your climate, the size of your home, the quality of your insulation, how energy efficient you want your house to be, and your budget.
After you have done your considerable research, speak to us for more information about our RapidRidge products to explore whether they could be the best option for you.